The fur trade

A hat that everyone wanted

From the late 1500s, a wide-brimmed hat became the fashion across Europe, and the best ones were made from beaver fur. Beaver underfur, the soft, short hair under the long outer guard hairs, has tiny barbs that lock together when it is pressed, making a dense, water-resistant material that holds its shape. But beavers had been heavily over-hunted in western Europe, so they had become scarce there. The fur trade began in the 1500s as a side business of the cod fishery, when fishing crews traded with Indigenous people on the coast.

Indigenous trading partners

North America had plenty of beavers in its rivers and lakes. Indigenous peoples such as the Innu, Wendat, Anishinaabe and Cree knew the land and the river routes. They trapped beavers, prepared the pelts and controlled much of the supply. They were trading partners, not hired workers, and they often chose who they would trade with.

A two-way trade

Indigenous traders exchanged pelts with French traders and, later, British traders for European goods: kettles, knives, axes, needles and cloth, along with beads and, later, guns. Metal tools and cloth were useful and hard to make locally, and the pelts were worth a great deal in Europe, so both sides wanted what the other had. The pelts then crossed the Atlantic, where hatmakers turned the underfur into hats.

Fur posts shape the map

As beaver grew scarce near the coast, traders pushed inland along the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa River and the Great Lakes, and later far to the west and north. They built trading posts and made alliances with Indigenous nations. Those routes, posts and alliances became the outline of New France and, later, of Canada. The trade ran from the early 1600s to the mid-1800s.

Good to know

• "Canada was built on a hat" is a hook and a simplification: fish, farming and much else mattered too.
• Western European beaver had been heavily over-hunted; Russia still supplied some furs, so "scarce" is the safe word.
• Much of the work of preparing pelts was done by Indigenous women. "Coat beaver" pelts were worn as robes until the long guard hairs wore off, which made them easier for hatmakers to use.
• The British Hudson's Bay Company was chartered in 1670; it comes later in the series.
• The trade had heavy costs too, including alcohol, wars over hunting grounds (the Beaver Wars) and the near loss of beaver in many areas; these come in Season 2.
• The boom faded after silk hats became the fashion in the 1830s and 1840s.

For Canadian history learners

This is core background for the New France units in Canadian history courses (such as Ontario's Grade 7 history): know that the fur trade depended on Indigenous partners and European demand, and that it drove exploration, alliances and settlement.

Answer to the comment question

What did hatmakers press beaver underfur into? Felt. The tiny barbs on beaver underfur lock together when the fur is pressed, wetted and heated, making thick, dense felt that hatmakers then shaped into hats.